Porsche SE returns to profit

Porsche Automobile Holding SE, the family-controlled parent company of the carmaker Porsche, announced 29 November that it has returned to profit for the first three months of its fiscal year.

In a statement, Porsche said it has generated a net profit of €155 million for the three months from 1 August 2010, compared with a loss of €413 million for the same period in 2009.

However, the statement went on to explain that last year's results are not a fair comparison as they included the full consolidated earnings from Volkswagen AG and Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH, which were deconsolidated in December 2009.

Porsche said it expects to break even in the current short fiscal year (1 August – 31 December 2010) and return to profit for the full calendar year in 2011.

The company, which is the holding group and majority owner of carmaker Porsche AG, holds its annual general meeting today where shareholders are voting on whether to accept a proposed €5 billion rights issue.

Porsche is in the process of a merger with Europe's largest carmaker Volkswagen, which is headed by a rival branch of the same family – Porsche is headed by Wolfgang Porsche (pictured) and VW by Ferdinand Piech, both grandsons of Porsche's founder.

Porsche had envisioned that his smaller carmaker could do a reverse takeover the much larger VW and began building up shares in his cousin's business. But by the end of 2008 Porsche had accumulated close to €10 billion in debt and, despite becoming the majority shareholder in VW with a 50.7% share, Porsche was left needing the financial help of VW to survive. (Continue reading here)

The first stage in the merger was concluded in October 2009 when VW took a 49.9% share in Porsche for €3.9 billion.

The Porsche and Piech families own Porsche's ordinary shares, which hold the voting rights, along with the Qatar Investment Authority.